... I won't be able to easily see tonight's game between the Oakland Raiders and the San Diego Chargers.
For years, the National Football League has been pushing to get its limited-appeal NFL Network on to cable systems' basic tier. Their goal -- to get into as many homes as possible and increase the amount of per-customer subscription fees that the cable companies have to pay. Many cable companies object -- pointing out that subscribers who want to fork out the dough for the NFL Network can easily subscribe to a higher level of access to watch the channel.
Anyway, whenever there's a big game on the NFL Network, the league uses the game and upset fans to put pressure on the cable systems. This happened last year when the New England Patriots put their perfect season on the line during a game scheduled to be aired on NFL Network (the network's coverage was ultimately shared with two broadcast networks).
It's really silly -- the only time I would want to see the network is when there's a game on. That's about eight or 10 times a year. For the remaining 355 days, I have no desire to watch or pay for the NFL Network.
That's when the games are worth watching. Tonight's rivalry matchup between the two struggling franchises doesn't really inspire me (even if it is being broadcast in 3D in certain locations).